It's been two years since the latest update on housing occupancy and the one released on Friday show the proportion of households renting has edged up to 31.4 per cent. The proportion owning outright is only a point or two in front, at 32.5 per cent. Around 35 per cent of homes are mortgaged.

Back before the tax change that ignited negative gearing at the end of the 1990s around 40 per cent of households owned outright, and only 28 per cent rented.

Among households headed by Australians aged under 35 an extraordinary 63.4 per cent rent.

Talk about pushing an agenda. Look at the title of this article. 67.5% of the population owning or purchasing their house is the complete opposite of the title of a nation of renters. Of course it is The Age, the most left wing communist paper around. They make pravda look balanced.

At the 1966 Census of Population and Housing, 71% of all occupied private dwellings were either owned outright or owned with a mortgage by their occupants. A lower average level of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander home ownership rates, compared to the population as a whole, contributed in part to the decrease, to 69%, in average home ownership recorded in the 1971 Census (see note (c) in table 10.5). Since then, the rate of home ownership in Australia, as measured in the Census, has ranged between 68% and 70% (table 10.5).

So in 1971, the average home ownership was 69%. This is allegedly fallen to 67%. A 2% fall in the average home ownership does not mean we are no longer a nation of owners.

Besides that,

Home loans to owner-occupiers are accelerating at the same time as lending to property investors eases off.

The Bureau of Statistics housing finance data for August show the value of loan approvals for owner-occupiers grew 6.1 per cent over the month, while the value of loans to investors fell 0.4 per cent.

Excluding refinancing, owner-occupier lending jumped 8.8 per cent, which Mortgage Choice chief executive John Flavell said is the strongest result since September 2009.
...
However, despite the slowdown in investor loans and surge in owner-occupier borrowing, investor loans still accounted for more than 40 per cent of the value of approvals in August.

A cool story would be to look at the real reasons why home ownership rates are changing instead of blaming negative gearing, especially with young people, where home ownership rates have fallen a lot. Kids are staying at home longer while they study, travel and start work. They get married later and marriage is the strongest indicator of home ownership. I would love to see a comparison of the rate of travel of young people between 1970 and now. There would be a strong correlation between that and home ownership. I say let the young travel. It's great life experience!

It's been two years since the latest update on housing occupancy and the one released on Friday show the proportion of households renting has edged up to 31.4 per cent. The proportion owning outright is only a point or two in front, at 32.5 per cent. Around 35 per cent of homes are mortgaged.

Back before the tax change that ignited negative gearing at the end of the 1990s around 40 per cent of households owned outright, and only 28 per cent rented.

Among households headed by Australians aged under 35 an extraordinary 63.4 per cent rent.

Click to expand...

Edged is the right word, the renting population since the 90s has increased slightly from 28 to 31.4%.
At some point in the future there will also be a massive transfer of stored wealth has many younger people will inherit the assets of their Baby boomer parents and the cycle continues.

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